Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
01.C.63 |
Object Name |
Cast, Skull |
Title |
Cast of Deformed Skull |
Description |
Plaster cast of skull housed in original wooden box with scraps of paper and handwritten note: "A celebre American Philosophical Society a Philadelphia de Prof. Joseph de Lenhosseky Budapest, 1879 31 Marz." Jawbone not included. |
Label |
József Lenhossék, a noted Hungarian anatomist and anthropologist, gave this skull cast to the APS in 1879. A professor at Budapest University, Lenhossék studied cranial deformities, measuring a wide variety of heads: ancient skulls in museums, heads of living people, and skulls of people from different ethnic groups in and around Hungary. Such craniometry was popular in the 19th century, as many people mistakenly believed that head measurements reflected character or intelligence. APS records note that this is a cast of a skull described in detail in Lenhossék's work on cranial deformities, published in Hungarian and French in 1878. This cast was probably taken from a skull discovered in Csongrad, Hungary, that was thought to show signs of macrocephaly, a neurodevelopmental disease resulting in an enlarged skull. |
Dimensions |
H-8.5 W-7.125 D-5.25 inches |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society. Gift of József Lenhossék, 15 August 1879. |
Search Terms |
19th Century nineteenth century science medicine anthropology anatomy archaeology eugenics |